‘You’re honoring a life well-lived’: embalmers describe their work (in great detail)
Embalming is one of the most common options for temporarily preserving bodies after death – but what exactly does it entail?
TL;DR
- Embalming aims to sanitize, preserve, and restore a body temporarily after death.
- It facilitates public viewing, long-distance transportation, and medical/science purposes.
- Embalming is not legally required for funerals and does not permanently preserve a body.
- The process includes bureaucratic steps, sanitizing the body, feature setting, arterial embalming, and cavity embalming.
- Arterial embalming involves pumping chemical solutions through the vascular system to displace blood.
- Cavity embalming injects concentrated fluid into body cavities after draining fluids.
- Embalming can be complex and requires reconstructive work for bodies with significant trauma.
- While formaldehyde is a key chemical, its use is controversial due to health risks, necessitating PPE for embalmers.
- The average cost of a funeral with embalming is significantly higher than cremation.